Currently

Linking up with Oh' Boy 4th Grade for the July Currently!   I am very excited that is still a month and a half of summer and the 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays!!

Listening: This summer my kids sleep in and I usually slept right with them.  I am trying to get up earlier this summer so I am not in complete shock in August but also I have really enjoyed a quiet house.  I drink coffee, read my devotions, blog, and have been catching up on some reading.

My daughter Victoria graduated college

My daughter Alexandra graduated high school
my son Nicholas is 14 and taller than all us girls.

Now you see why I get my mornings to myself....they are big!!  Those of you with little ones, this all goes way too fast and I really don't know how this happened!!  :P


Loving:  That my sister and husband and 3 adorable children are moving back to Florida!!  I have been without them for a year and I am excited to not be crying anymore!  Wow, I've missed them!!

I had one niece in my class a year ago and now I get to have the other niece this year!  AHHHHH....so excited!!

Thinking: about school and the next year and all the new things I want to do wayyyy too much!!  I should be sitting on the beach and turning my brain off!!  I made new labels for my cohort and I for our themed rooms!

It's in our teachers notebook store HERE!

And you can pick up the Sea theme HERE!

Wanting: to be consistent with my workouts!  Yes I join the millions of ladies who always wants to shed a few pounds and have amazing arms and abs...but yet....it's ok as long as we keep trying, right??  and who is kidding who?  I love being in my 40's and being a mom and wife!!

Needing:  This is where I need your ideas!!!  I am accumulating too many cute things digitally and I need a system to organize my digital files.... HELP!!!

Tips, Tricks, and Hints: This is a tip or trick that Miss Kindergarten told us all about and revolutionized my whole classroom!  When you label all those cute name cards and job cards exc. with a sharpie.  Well if you take a dry erase marker and color over the top of the sharpie...scribble it up and then wipe with a paper towel, it disappears! 
 SO EASY!!! wish I had pictures to show you....but I promise it works!!

Tickle me Tech

The 3am Teacher ( I love her name!) just posted a great tutorial for us newbies for a fabulous look to our creations!  Thank you so much for sharing....

 Click HERE to download it at her TPT store!

ENJOY!!

A Great Center Idea!

Okay, so I was out shopping again....shhhh don't tell my husband!  He has learned to ignore the dollar store and target bags coming into the house...Well...here is my deal for the day!

What is the big deal about these you ask? I have discovered something amazing!  I put these cups in a box and put them in my manipulative center and my little ones LOVE THEM!!!  

These cheap buy one get one free cups are one of my kids favorite things to play with....hours spent in entertainment (stacking, sorting, putting counters into)

BONUS:

I can put a few in my light center for added color and somewhere on pinterest (forgive me I forget where, if I find it again I will let you know) I am going to melt some and make round colored disks for my light table!  Still looking for a black light to add this year.  Need a good sale...

Johnny Appleseed!

                                                            Click Here! to go see Fabulicious!

We are excited to be involved in our first Fabulicious Freebies!  We begin our year with the vowels so I thought you might enjoy a part of our "A" week unit.  Amazing Glyphs!
We love doing Glyphs- where we ask the children questions and they color, paint, glue, or place according to the answer they give.
Now I have to tell you.....when it comes to analyzing I have tried many different ways!!  However, by trial and error I have finally come up with a way that my little ones like AND DOES NOT drive me insane!!!!
We analyze data as a whole group.  I hand out the graph to each student, hang my copy on the board and walk around the room asking questions and graphing the answers.  Every few students we stop and see which question is winning, predict the winner.  The more animated I am, the more they stay focused....It works like a charm....let me know if you have another way that works, I would love to hear.
At Back To School Night I like to tell parents that we analyze data....They seem to love that!!
In our apple unit we have a Johnny Appleseed Glyph.  We thought you may enjoy it sooooo....
We put it on our TPT store for free!  You can pick it up HERE!

Blog Lovin'

 As some of you might know, Google Reader is shutting down from the 1st of July and as from that date, you will lose the list of blogs you follow. I personally use Bloglovin’, as most of you, but for those of you who don’t, you can easily transfer the list of all the blogs you already follow so you don’t miss out...Thank you to all those who are following. We are enjoying getting to know some of you and are loving this new world we are in. We hope to gain some new followers and friends!

Please click on the left sidebar to start following....

Jungle Organization Station

Cards and tag to organize a Jungle/Safari classroom!
You can pick up the unit HERE!

Here is a Jungle/Safari theme organization station to go with Kim's post on
              O is for Organization! click here

Label to organize all those school supplies!
If you need a label that is not here, let us
know and we will make it for you!

Apples2Apples

                          Amazing Apple Unit!

You can pick up this unit for a steal By clicking HERE!!

APPLES, APPLES, APPLES!  We use this unit in the fall and my little ones love it!!
We start "A" week reading Johnny Appleseed and teaching the students the song "Oh, The Lord's Been Good To Me".  At our learning center time we match lower and uppercase letters, we  put apples into the correct number basket, and pattern with apple stamps.  During craft time, we make an apple and we do our Johnny Appleseed Glyph.  At the end of the unit we taste yellow, green, and red apples and graph our favorite!  We make Johnny Appleseed hats (gray construction paper with a pan handle) and end with carmel apples......Who says learning can't be fun and delicious!!